Page 61 of Tempted By the Forbidden Mate

“Do you smell that?” It didn’t smell like this when Soren brought us to look at it. I turn to Holter, but he’s already gone. He’s stomped down the hallway off the living room. “Holter?”

I have to run to catch up with him. He’s at a door at the end of the hallway, one I hadn’t noticed on the quick tour we had. He opens it. The lip on the floor holds back three inches of water.

“What is that?” I point and shake off the ridiculousness of my own words. “I know it’s water, but where is it coming from?”

“All apartments have an airlock. A way to exit the apartment without using the main entrance. It’s how a lot of people come and go if they’re going for a swim or work in the water. But this one shouldn’t have been used.”

“Oh, I didn’t notice one at Ophelia’s.”

“That’s because no one at Ophelia’s has a job that requires manual labor and access to the ocean.” Holter flashes me a smile. It’s the first time I’ve seen him smile since the ball, but it drops from his face. Something about this isn’t right.

“Should there be water here?”

“No. Because no one should be going through here, unless it’s you. And seeing––” He cuts himself off.

“Seeing that I don’t exactly have a tail—a fluke—I’m not going to go for a swim this deep in the ocean.”

“Yes.” He pulls the door tight and hits a panel on the wall. A loud whooshing sound of drying fans whirls behind the door. “There shouldn’t ever be water there.” He frowns at the panel and then turns to the door and grimaces.

The panel turns green, and he opens the door again. It’s completely dry.

“That was fast.” I’m continually surprised by how advanced everything is here. “But why was the water there? Do you think someone broke in?” Back home, we didn’t lock the door to the house. The grain silos and the fertilizer shed, we kept them locked up tight. The tractors, yes. But the house was wide open. “What would someone want with an empty apartment? Unless they didn’t know it was empty?”

“Exactly. Anyone who was supposed to be in here would have taken the time to finish the process and not trail saltwater over the whole apartment. It’s a row of airlocks for safety and has a built-in desalination shower; it only takes a quick push of a button. Most podlets know how to use it. Water should never have reached this far.” He points into the room next to the three rooms along the space. “Flooding an apartment isn’t something you want to deal with. Not unless you... it’s not something you’re going to want to do. It’s almost impossible to have all three of these doors open at the same time. And for good reason. Someone was in a hurry.”

I bite my lip. “There’s no reason why anyone would want to flood this apartment, and really there’s nothing of value here.”

“No.” Holter has his block in his hand. “But yes...” His eyes flit over me. And I realize I’m the reason someone would want to break into an empty apartment. I’m the only thing of value here.

“Who are you contacting?”

“Castor.” Holter pushes a few buttons on the wall, and the whole thing locks up. The computer’s two-tone sound alarms.

I can’t help but think Castor doesn’t care. Since he walked me back to Ophelia’s the night of the ball, he’s been super detached. I’ve never been a clingy person. If someone doesn’t want to be around me, I let them go. Maybe it’s coming to terms with Nico being gone. Or he’s listening to his mother. She’s right. Everyone’s expected to be king his whole life. He shouldn’t give it up for me.

“I don’t want to ask Castor for anything,” Holter says. “But right now, he has the connections and power to get this figured out.”

“And power is something we’re without.”

“Not completely.”

The door slides open before I can ask Holter what he means by not completely. Castor races in with Constantine, Ophelia’s mate, and Milo, one of Castor’s youngest brothers.

“Are you okay?” Castor demands.

Holter glares at him. “Whoever left it open was gone by the time we got here. But the final airlock contained standing water.”

“What the fuck?” Constantine ignores the lot of us and races for the back room. Milo chases after him.

Castor cocks his head at me. “Really, Annabelle, are you okay?”

“I...” I don’t want to tell him no. But saying I’m okay feels wrong too. I’m far from okay. I’m not even in the same hemisphere as okay.

There’s plenty of times in my life I’ve felt in danger, but I’ve always known from whom, and how to hide from my uncle is something I could write a dissertation on. Someone breaking into my apartment? My insides shake. A girl can only be kidnapped so many times before her grit starts to falter. Or maybe I’ll just turn into a raging killing machine too? Were they really after me? Or were they after something here?

I glance down the hall after Constantine and Milo.

“Hold up, let me show you where,” Holter says, taking long strides to show them where to go.

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